Get Involved

The BLM completed public scoping on March 23, 2012, for its unprecedented effort to amend as many as 98 of its Resource Management Plans. The U.S. Forest Service has joined in this effort and is working to amend as many as nineteen of its Land and Resource Management Plans for National Forest lands with sage- grouse habitat. These efforts are focused on providing the regulatory certainty necessary to ensure greater sage-grouse conservation.

During the scoping period, the agencies held nearly 40 scoping meetings throughout the 10 western states with greater sage-grouse populations. The public submitted more than 15,000 comments during the process. The two agencies are currently reviewing all of the public input it received during the scoping period. We aim to have a scoping report, which summarizes the public input as succinctly as possible, ready by the end of June 2012. It will be posted to the Documents and Resources section of this website when it is available. A summary timeline of the entire BLM effort is available by clicking this link.

The BLM and the Forest Service aim to incorporate conservation measures into all of their affected Land Management Plans by September 2014 in order to make the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) court-ordered 2015 deadline for making an Endangered Species Act listing decision on this species.

Details of the public participation process from the scoping period appear below.

Public Scoping Period

The public scoping period for new RMP amendments in the Rocky Mountain Region began with the publication of the Notice of Intent in the Federal Register on December 9, 2011. The Rocky Mountain Region will be hosting two scoping meetings in January 2012 in Montana and the Dakotas. Specific date, time, and location information will be provided as soon as available. Four scoping meetings are also scheduled in northern and northeastern Utah at the locations and dates listed below. Each meeting will run from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., unless noted:

2012 Dates and Times

City

Location

Address

January 10, 5 p.m to 8 p.m.

Lewistown, MT

Yogo Inn

211 E. Main St.

January 17, 5 p.m to 8 p.m.

Price, UT

Carbon County Event Center

310 S. Fairgrounds Rd.

January 17

Bowman, ND

Bowman City Hall

101 1st St. NE

January 18

Vernal, UT

Western Park Convention Center

300 East 200 South

January 19

Salt Lake City, UT

Hampton Inn & Suites

307 N. Admiral Byrd Road

January 23

Randolph, UT

Randolph Senior Center

5 N. Main St.

January 30, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Casper, WY

BLM Field Office Conference Room

2987 Prospector Drive

January 31

Walden, CO

Wattenberg Center

682 County Road 42

January 31, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Buffalo, WY

BLM Field Office Conference Room

1425 Fort Street

February 1

Lakewood, CO

Sheraton Denver West

360 Union Blvd.

February 1, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Worland, WY

BLM Field Office Conference Room

101 South 23rd

February 2, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Silt, CO

BLM Field Office

2300 River Frontage Rd.

February 2, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Rock Springs, WY

BLM Field Office Conference Room

280 Highway 191 North

February 7, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Craig, CO

BLM Field Office

455 Emerson Street

February 7, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Douglas, WY

National Guard Armory Meeting Room

315 North Pearson

February 9, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Newcastle, WY

USDA Natural ResourcesConservation Service Meeting Room

1225 Washington Blvd., Suite 2

February 15, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Gillette, WY

Campbell County PublicLibrary

2101 South 4J Road

Scoping meetings will allow attendees the opportunity to review posters and other informational materials, talk with project team leaders, and submit comments on the project. There will also be several information workshops scheduled in Colorado and Wyoming beginning in January to provide the public with information about current and on-going RMP amendments.

The public may submit comments, request additional information, or request to be put on the mailing list by sending such information to the BLM Wyoming State Office, Attn: Johanna Munson, Bureau of Land Management, 5353 Yellowstone, Cheyenne, WY 82009, or by submitting comments to sageeast@blm.gov.

Submitting Comments

Comments are important to us as they may provide valuable information and data useful in our decision-making process that may have been overlooked. Please refer to the Guide to Good Public Comments for detailed information on how to provide helpful public comments.

In order to be included in the Draft EIS, all comments must be received by the BLM by close of business on March 23, 2012.

Aside from submitting comments at one of the scoping meetings, comments may be submitted by any of the following methods: